When you are ready to enter your artwork in local art competitions, here are nine art tips that can help make this a great experience.
Art Competition Jurors
One of the favorite pastimes of entrants is trying to predict the kind of artwork a particular juror will accept, based on that juror’s painting style. Sometimes picking your entries in this way works and you get in, but I’ve also seen jurors choose an eclectic mix of styles and subjects, only some of which were like their own.
Art Tip # 1 – My advice is just enter your best work – art that shows skillful use of your painting medium, a well-designed composition and an image that shows creativity. These are three important criteria of most jurors.
When you enter your best artwork, you are showing your strengths. After that, it is up to the juror and his or her viewpoint. And you’ll just have to accept the vagaries of the judging process. As a more extreme example of what can happen, I once had the same juror for two different shows. I entered the same painting in both art competitions and the juror rejected it from the first show and gave it an award in the later one. A nationally known artist told me a similar story about a painting of his. It was rejected from one national show and won Best of Show in another. I’m pretty sure he didn’t have my juror.
Photographing Your Art
Art Tip # 2 – The second most important factor you control, after painting a great piece of art, is taking a good photograph of it. This is what the juror sees to judge your art; it needs to represent you well.
The picture should, of course, be in focus and show colors that closely match your art, so become proficient at shooting your own work or find a professional to do it.
What people who take pictures of their own art may not realize is the lighting conditions affect the color of your picture. Just like the old film cameras, shooting pictures with a digital camera using incandescent light bulbs will turn your picture more orange. Using fluorescent lights can turn the pictures greenish. Shooting outside when the sky is overcast can create a bluish tint, so look at your pictures closely before entering them.
A lot of people make the mistake of leaving their digital camera set on Automatic. To get the color in your picture to match your artwork, you need to understand how to set the White Balance. Every time you shoot under different lighting conditions you should reset the White Balance. Check your manual for how to do this on your camera.
Another award and entry killer is not submitting your entry in the required format with the required information. Always read the art contest prospectus. It’s amazing how many people don’t follow instructions, which instantly converts their entry fee into a donation.
Art Tip # 3 – Film is going away, so my advice is to become familiar with how to prepare and send digital pictures.
Art competitions that require digital entries often want your pictures to be formatted in a specific way. The prospectus will often say your entry should have a black background and be X number of pixels square. If you don’t want to buy software (like Photoshop or Photoshop Elements) that will help you do that, there are free internet sites you can also use to format your pictures.
